


If Ever There was Someone to Keep Me at Home (It Would be You)

by Illyah



Series: Apparently Elle's Writing Stucky Now [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Bucky and Peggy were friends, Endgame Fix-It, Endgame divergent, Fix-It, Long lasting friendships, M/M, Mention of Shield, Steve Rogers is a Good Friend, Strong Friendships, Super soldier husbands, They deserved better, Time Travel, You know what scene, and husband, because no, fight me, just no, mention of war, unbetaed, writing this made me happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 01:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illyah/pseuds/Illyah
Summary: He would have killed to be here, in his first years out of the ice, to have a chance to live the life he’d been so unfairly denied, and he admitted that he would have been tempted to stay-to say fuck the branching timeline shit, and live the life he could’ve had. Before. Steve had a lot of before in his life, before Sarah died and left him mostly alone in the world, before the war, when he and Bucky had managed to carve out a small place for themselves in the back alleys of Brooklyn, with nothing but smiles and black eyes to worry about.Before the serum, and the changes and danger it had brought with it. Before the train, before the ice. Before HYDRA. But there was never anything before Bucky.





	If Ever There was Someone to Keep Me at Home (It Would be You)

**Author's Note:**

> I got mad and fixed some stuff.
> 
> Title from “Guaranteed” by Eddie Vedder.
> 
> I messed with canon because I do what I want.
> 
> <3

It was the irony that got him caught in the end.

He’d been so careful, up until that point, making sure he saw no one and left no witnesses to speculate. Until the set foot back in 1950. He looked around the office he was standing in-the bones of what would eventually become SHIELD, glancing around he noticed that it was exactly as he would have expected Peggy’s office to be, it seemed lived in-he noticed the absence of the pictures on her desk, and allowed for the irony of the situation to overtake him for just a moment.

He would have killed to be here, in his first years out of the ice, to have a chance to live the life he’d been so unfairly denied, and he admitted that he would have been tempted to stay-to say fuck the branching timeline shit, and live the life he could’ve had. Before. Steve had a lot of before in his life, before Sarah died and left him mostly alone in the world, before the war, when he and Bucky had managed to carve out a small place for themselves in the back alleys of Brooklyn, with nothing but smiles and black eyes to worry about. Before the serum, and the changes and danger it had brought with it. Before the train, before the ice. Before HYDRA. But there was never anything before Bucky.

The thing was, Steve reflected was that he also had a lot of afters, as was common for someone who was as long lived as he, after Sarah died, and he and Bucky became a family in every way that mattered-after the serum, when Steve stormed that factory to save Bucky from the Nazis. Steve swallowed back the lump in his throat, after the train when Steve forgot how to really be a person for a while. After the ice, when he finally, finally started to remember. And most importantly, after HYDRA, when he finally got Bucky back.

He was finally coming out of the worst after of them all, when he was granted this opportunity he would have killed for years ago. Now all he could think about was getting home to his family, who he finally had back after so long. He felt his lungs truly fill for the first time in more than five years, the absence of desperation was all he could absorb for a moment. He just had to place the cube back and then he could go home to his family.

So distracted was he that he never even heard the door opening before he heard the cocking of a gun, and he could Bucky’s seriously annoyed voice in the back of his head, wondering how on earth is he a super-soldier.

“Hands up.” Comes the voice behind him and he knows he should be cautious but he can’t help the grin that splits his face apart, typical Peggy. He slowly raised his fans up to shoulder height, noting she hadn’t moved the gun at all, still trained for a perfect headshot, and tried desperately not to smirk as he turned around.

“Hey Pegs.” He shrugged.

It was the closest he had ever seen to Peggy Carter speechless. It took her a moment but she regained control over herself long enough to throw herself across the room and start slapping him everywhere she could reach, saying all kinds of lovely things about where he could go and how he could get there and how dare he impersonate Steve Rogers, and just who did he think he was, exactly?

Steve finally managed to get his hands up over his head to defend himself for her frankly, over aggressive agitation.

“Jesus, Peg! Calm down!” Steve shouted and she backed off, still glaring something fierce, “when I first got my shield you tried to shoot me because you were mad about Private Lorraine.” He told her placatingly, and she looked him over more closely.

“You may be Steven Rogers, but you’re not my Steve,” she nodded towards his left hand, “for one thing, my Steve wasn’t married, and looking more closely, you do look older, not much, but enough. So, Steven, when are you from and why are you here?” She asked, smirking and leaning on her desk.

He smiled at her, “just returning something I borrowed.” He told her honestly, holding up the cube, watching her roll her eyes, “You could have just asked to borrow it, you know.” She told him in mock exasperation.

She pulled a bottle of scotch out of the bottom drawer and held it up and Steve nodded, he figured that since he was already here, the timeline had already branched, he might as well spend some time with an old friend, and besides, he and Bucky had talked about what to tell her and things to show her, in case Steve were to run into her in his travels.

Words were still a struggle for Bucky, but Bucky had made sure that Steve knew what his message for Peggy was, had even gone as far as recording it to make sure it was delivered perfectly.

Peggy raised her eye brow at Steve, indicating that he should start talking, he nodded seriously, “I’m visiting from 2023.” He told her, and waited for her reaction, she, unsurprisingly seemed un-phased, but they had all seen some strange shit over the course of the war, and Steve can’t believe it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

“When I crashed into the ice-the serum kept me frozen and alive, cased in ice until 2011, when I was found accidentally. I had been defrosted for roughly two weeks before a band of aliens attacked New York and I was forced to work with Howard’s son,” and here, Steve paused for a long suffering sigh, the kind that was immediately reminiscent of Captain America’s disappointed sigh.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone, darling.” She told him gently, be noticed that he had seemed rather cheerful this entire time, and she knew that somehow, everything had turned out alright for the wayward Captain.

“You seem to be doing better now, what changed?” She asked, she wanted to know more about this adult version of the young man she knew so long ago.

Steve smiled then, small and shy. “I got married a few years back.” He told her, face still lit with the tiny smile. “Do you want to see a picture?” He asked, pulling out something that had to be a telephone, though completely unlike anything she had ever seen before, and if she hadn’t believed him before about the future, she certainly did now.

He handed her the phone and she stared down at the screen, the photo was clearly of a wedding-two men, she smiled to herself, Steve and the other man standing with their hands on each other’s cheeks, wearing huge smiles perfectly clear even though their faces were mostly obscured with the other’s hands. If she didn’t know better she would swear the person in the picture was “James.” She whispered near silently, Steve only picked it up because he was enhanced. She looked down and tried to puzzle it out. The man in the picture more than resembled James, and most people didn’t have any idea that she and James had been almost as close as Steven and James had been, during the war. They were the only two people in the world with a prayer of stopping Steve Rogers from doing something deathly stupid.

She smiled running her hands over the picture on the phone-of all the deaths in the war, and all the deaths since, James and Steve had hit her the hardest, they were her boys and she was supposed to bring them home, and failed. She was broken out of her trance when she looked over to Steve and saw him nodding faintly, still wearing his tiny smile.

“But how…?” She started, she had looked for the Sergeant after the Captain had crashed, she and the rest of the commandos had gone back to the alps and found nothing but a blood spot covered in snow, nothing that suggested a human being had possibly survived losing that amount of blood.

“Buck got shot up with a Nazi knockoff version of the serum while he was held prisoner at Azzano, and when he fell from the train, he-he” this was still hard for Steve to talk about, knowing what Bucky had been through, “He lived, and HYDRA found him, and I just got him back in 2014.” Steve said, unable to further elaborate, and she found she didn’t want to know anymore.

“It was a rough couple of years, but between chasing him halfway around the world and him finally allowing himself to caught-Peggy, he amazes me, the things his lived through and managed to overcome,” Steve shakes his head. “He’s my hero.”

“Come now, Steven,” she teases, elbowing him lightly in the ribs, “we both know James has always been your hero.”

Steve goes on and tells her all about the helicarriers, and how it took him forever to find Bucky after DC and how everything almost went completely off the rails before Steve had finally lost his patience after Tony had followed them to Siberia and pointed out, cruelly, that Bucky’s arm was Stark tech and how exactly had that happened, Tony?

Things changed after that, using Tony’s BARF technology coupled with Shuri’s genius, they had managed to slowly bring Bucky Barnes back.

Steve could feel himself running short on time, feeling the pull back to his own timeline, but he had promised Bucky he would show Peggy the video he made for her if the opportunity presented itself. Steve pulled it up and turned the screen towards Peggy, revealing a laughing and waving Bucky.

“Hey Pegs!” He said, waving exaggeratedly at the camera, “if you’re seeing this it’s because Steve couldn’t leave damn well alone and got caught in some ‘bout of nostalgia for a time when polio was rampant and we were all on rations.” He rolled his eyes.

“You’re going to do amazing things, Pegs. You’re such a badass.” Bucky shot her a whimsical smile. “I’m so happy I got to know you, and thank you for looking for me. Love you, Peggy-girl.” He smiled at the camera and blew her a kiss before the screen went black, leaving her smiling with tears in her eyes.

“Tell me everything you know about these HYDRA bastards, and where they kept him and when.” She told Steve, already back in tactician mode, and Steve knew that he was leaving this timeline in good hands, and that maybe this world would be better than the one he’d left behind. It was what he hoped, at least.

After recording her own message for Bucky and hugging Steve for a very long time, she watched as he set his timer and counted down the seconds until he’d he home again.

“4…3…2…1” He heard Doctor Banner saying, and over shot the platform slightly, tumbling over his feet, and tripping straight into Bucky’s arms. He nodded and smiled at Sam and Bruce “it’s done.” He told them, and felt the huge weight lift off all three of their shoulders. 

There would be time for explanations, and discussions of what happened in the past, and decisions to be made about what comes next, but for now, Steve just wanted to be back with the people who meant the most to him, who fought for and with him.

“Alright, Princess,” Bucky said, righting Steve on his feet and pressing a kiss to his forehead, “lets go home.” He said, leading them back to the small village on the outskirts of the city.


End file.
